The No. 18 Arizona women’s gymnastics team opens post-season conference competition in the 2013 NCAA Columbus Regional. The team will be taking on five of the top teams in the nation in hopes of qualifying to the NCAA National Championships. The competition is set to take place Saturday, April 6 at 6:00 p.m. and will feature No. 6 UCLA, No. 7 LSU, No. 18 Arizona, No. 20 Ohio State, North Carolina State and No. 24 Central Michigan.

Ticket Info

Adult tickets are $10, while students, children (under 18) and seniors (62+) are $8. Groups of 20 or more may purchase discounted tickets in advance for $5. All prices are subject to service charges online and via phone. Tickets are available online via ticketmaster, by phone by calling TicketMaster (1-800-GOBUCKS) and in person at the OSU Ticket Office. Tickets will not be available at Ticketmaster outlets. All group requests must go through the Athletic Ticket Sales team at 1-800-GOBUCKS or AthleticSales@osu.edu.

Following the Cats

For those that can’t make it to Columbus, live stats and live video feeds available throughout the competition. The video will feature four different live streams so fans keeping up with the rotation order can watch their selected teams.

Seeded for Success

Based on its No. 18 national ranking, Arizona has been seeded No. 3 for its regional. The full seeding is as follows:

UCLA

LSU

Arizona

Ohio State

Central Michigan

North Carolina State

Based on these rankings, Arizona will begin the meet on a bye and then compete floor, vault, bye, bars, and beam. (Full Rotation Schedule)

Moving On

The top two teams of the competition will qualify to compete April 19-21 in the NCAA National Championships. From there, the top two all-around competitors from non-qualifying teams earn a ticket as well. In order to qualify as an individual, competitors can earn themselves a ticket in the all-around or on an individual event. No matter what, the top two all-around competitors from non-qualifying teams earn a spot in the Championships. In order to qualify on an individual event, an athlete must take first place on the event with a score of 9.800 or better.

With the gymnastics competition season past the half-way point, the team and individual rankings have switched from being based on overall score average to a team’s total RQS. But what exactly is an RQS score, and how does it work?

Given that gymnastics is a sport based on judgment, it needs to have a ranking system that can mostly eliminate scoring and performance inconsistencies. Obviously, in a perfect world, all judges would take the same deductions for the same degree of mistakes, etc. – but every judge can’t be at every competition, so deductions aren’t necessarily 100% foolproof. With that same token, in a perfect world a team would never have a bad meet – though everyone has an off day.

Because of this, RQS was born. An RQS score is made up of a team’s top three away scores plus the team’s top three other scores minus the overall top score, and average of the remaining five. This average is supposed to be an overall better indicator of a team’s performance, taking out overly bad performances (in addition to overly good performances) as well as potential judging differentials.

So what is the reason the rankings start out as an average? In the beginning of the season there are not enough scores to factor into the RQS formula. Each team needs to have at least three away meets and a total of six meets under their belt before this type of score can be calculated.

Look Out for New GymCats

Arizona added a number of new faces this season, including Shelby Edwards out of San Tan Valley, Ariz., Lexi Mills hailing from Frisco, Texas, Sloughouse California native Jessie Sisler, and Krishna Yemany from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. All of these gymnasts were top J.O. or Canadian Elite competitors and should make a dent in the lineups this season.

Pre-season Rankings

The Arizona gymnastics team heads into the season ranked No. 19 in the 2013 Women’s Pre-Season Coaches poll. The Wildcats are one of six Pac-12 schools to place within the top 25, including No. 2 UCLA, No. 5 Utah, No. 6 Stanford, No. 9 Oregon State and No. 17 Washington.